My interviews with Conversocial consisted of 5 rounds, spanning ~three weeks. I was contacted by an [external] recruiter working for Conversocial. I had never heard of the company and was not actively interviewing. There was a point on the JD about SQL I wanted clarification on (I was not interested in proceeding if I was not qualified). I was assured by the recruiter that my SQL skill level was in line but that I could nonetheless confirm in the next round. I then met with the VP of the department. I had a very positive conversation with him, and received confirmation that SQL was not a hard requirement for this role. Every step along the way the recruiter was in touch with me providing feedback. He told me that they were very impressed and wanted me to complete a bot-building exercise (no SQL assessment included). Upon receiving instructions for the exercise there was a 30-min meeting scheduled with the hiring manager allowing me to ask questions about the platform and/or exercise. After completing the bot exercise there was an additional meeting with the hiring manager where I presented/reviewed my bot. I was once again provided feedback from the recruiter that they were very impressed with my work, told that I was the front runner, and was advanced to the final round with a peer who holds the same title. My final round felt more like a formality/sign-off/courtesy to the peer. She gave me almost all the time to ask questions about the role+Conversocial, and only briefly asked about my experience. At the end of it all, I had grown increasingly interested in Conversocial and this role. And up until the end I had a positive experience. The real disappointment came when my recruiter notified me that the peer felt like my SQL experience was not adequate. This was incredibly frustrating and confusing as I was assured this was not a hard requirement for the role, nor was it ever emphasized by them. After spending a cumulative ~10 hours prepping and participating in this process I was very surprised to be rejected for this reason (assuming it was the real reason). Also shocked the final decision came from the peer when I had received such glowing feedback from both the VP and the hiring manager from the start. 3 months later, it seems nobody has been hired for this position (based on LinekdIn) and the job listing is still posted exclusively on their website (oddly nowhere else). I started wondering if this was a non-existent role, some kind of US-Visa workaround, or if this company is just being hyper-selective. In any case, just a warning that your time may be wasted.